About Seacoast nh ​permaculture

“Permaculture gives us a toolkit for moving from a culture of fear and scarcity to one of love and abundance.” Toby Hemenway

Our mission: The Seacoast NH Permaculture Group empowers individuals and communities to work together to create resiliency through the use of Permaculture in the NH seacoast area and beyond. We inspire and teach each other by sharing skills, knowledge, and regenerative practices, nurturing our connections and celebrating our work.

About the Group: The Seacoast Permaculture Meetup was launched in December of 2009. The original goal was to connect people interested in sustainable living with opportunities to learn more about permaculture.

Amy Antonucci had received her Permaculture Design Certificate in the Summer of 2008. While it was a valuable experience, she felt like there was still so much to learn. She also felt passionate about it’s potential to be a world-changing and healing force and wanted to bring it to a wider audience. Some of the graduates from the 2008 PDC remained in touch and tried to come together to offer programs. They were using a googlegroups platform but it wasn’t gathering many members or momentum.

Then, another permaculturist moved to the area and attended one of the workshops. Mary Wicklund had recently completed her PDC in the Portland Maine area. She had been part of a vibrant Portland group organized through the online service of “meetup,” so we decided to try that model here.

It proved to be a much better way to find interested people and build our group. Our first event in February 2010 brought together 18 people to view The Global Gardener film, followed by 71 attendees who came to a special event with speaker Toby Hemenway in Dover NH, cosponsored by the Portland Permaculture Meetup. Our first year we held 20 meetups, with 277 participants. Donations at our events covered all of our bills, and we felt we had a viable group started!

As of this writing in March 2017, we have held 407 meetups, now have 993 members, and a new structure to support our activities. We became a nonprofit in 2015 including a board of directors who assist Amy, who remains the main organizer of the group. We have offered a wide variety of events such as: classes in seed saving, maple sugaring, swale building, scythe usage, local investing; book studies; kids programs; films; potlucks; and a concert by a permaculture troubadour! There is now a facebook page and website for further outreach, we have established relationships with other active groups (The Portsmouth Public Library, Slow Food Seacoast, North Shore Permaculture Collaborative, Seacoast Eat Local, The Music Hall), and just commissioned a logo from a local artist! We have lots of plans and ideas for continuing to educate, build community and create a more sustainable world.